Home baker
You want a dough that behaves the same way every time, with ratios and timings you can repeat.
Caserta · Naples · Italy
The method behind Secrets of Pizza
Neapolitan dough is not a list of ingredients. It is a sequence you can see and feel. This page is the author and the standard behind the guide — biga first, then dough, then the bake.
Built for people who want authentic Pizza Napoletana at home, including in a domestic oven.
Who this is for
Home-oven baker
No wood oven. A steel or stone, maximum heat, and a dough built to puff and colour in a domestic oven.
Small pizza business
Pop-ups, catering, tight menus. A method you can scale by the kilo and hand to someone else.
Why biga
Biga is a stiff preferment: flour, a little water, a pinch of yeast. It ferments slowly before the final dough is mixed. After around 24 hours cold, it brings depth of flavour and a gentle acidity that a same-day dough cannot.
Long fermentation gives the yeast and enzymes time to work through the flour. Many bakers find the result lighter and easier to digest. The crumb opens, the rim puffs, and the crust colours well — even in a home oven.
What you will learn
- Ingredients: flour, water, salt, yeast — and how to choose them.
- Dough science: hydration, temperature and time, and what makes a pizza Neapolitan.
- The full biga dough recipe, step by step.
- Dough balls: weighing, shaping and proofing the panetto.
- Stretching and baking, including in a home oven.
- Sauce and cheese — and taking the method into a small business.
The standard
01
Biga ready
Domed, dry to the touch, sharp lactic smell. Ready to mix.
02
Windowpane
A thin, translucent sheet without tearing. Gluten is developed.
03
Mature bulk
Relaxed, slightly domed, fine bubbles at the edge.
04
Proofed panetto
Soft, round, springs back slowly when pressed.
Salvatore Russo, pizzaiolo
Caserta, Naples, Italy
Salvatore Russo developed Secrets of Pizza as a complete Neapolitan system, not a collection of toppings. The work centres on biga, dough temperature, fermentation time and the visual cues that tell you when the dough is ready. Each stage has a look, a feel and a smell, and the guide teaches you to read them instead of watching the clock alone.
The guide is written for home bakers and for people starting small: pop-ups, catering and tight menus. Ratios are given by weight, timings are given as ranges, and the home oven is treated as a real tool, not an apology. The point is consistency. If the dough is right, the pizza follows.
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